“If today were the last day of my life would I want to do what I am about to do today?” – Steve Jobs
From: The Maxwell Daily Reader, John C. Maxwell
Date: January 21 2016
Title: The Value of Time
From: The 360* Leader
Gist:
Today’s entry reveals a simple equation, everything you do in life is a factor of time. Not the inherent consumption of time in doing something, but the fact when your time is occupied by one thing you can’t do another. So, is it worth your time. Further if you set a goal of purchasing a large item like a home, that the five years it may take you to save a downpayment is actually a cost of five years of your life.
Maxwell quotes a psychiatrist M. Scott Peck who states “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”
Essentially view your work and life in the scope of time. Maxwell believes this paradigm shift will greatly benefit your ability to achieve goals.
Favorite Quote:
“…people don’t pay for things with money; they pay for them with time.” – Charles Spezzano
Action: Are the tasks on today’s agenda worthy of your life?
Ramble on:
The video at the top of the post is an excerpt from the Stanford commencement speech Steve Jobs gave, the entire speech is above.
Financial investing essentially involves two simple tasks: determine opportunity costs, and mitigate risk. At the heart of today’s Maxwell entry is the concept of opportunity costs.
When you choose to endeavor in one opportunity, you lose the ability to explore another opportunity. If I help my friend on building his start-up, I can’t take the time to develop a skill, or use tinder to get laid.
Thus all investments represent an analysis of opportunity costs. Once capital is tied up in one vehicle, it is no longer available for another. Additionally the comparison of relatively equal investments requires a thorough understanding of underlying risks. This is an oversimplification of financial investments. To all of you in the financial services sector your secret is out, and to all who have friends you secretly hate because they make shitloads more money than you, you now understand what they do. But you will probably never understand the complexities involved in their analysis, because the brain power involved in each is significant. There’s also luck involved, no one can control risk but you can try to minimize its impact on your personal situation.
As Steve Job’s stated if you knew today was going to be the last day of your life, would you be satisfied with what you are about to do? More importantly if the day got cut short would you have died happy?
After reading today’s entry I cam up with the following equation (I’m Asian, it just comes out of me). Our lives are a factor of time.
You have 1,440 minutes in each day of your life, 10,800 minutes a week, 43,800 minutes a month, 525,600 minutes a year.
Time Value of Money = $1 today is worth more than a $1 tomorrow (part of the reason you only get paid 2x a month)
$1 = “x” minutes of my life to earn
“x” = “y” portion of my life (i.e. %)
Selfie Stick = “y”, so is worth giving that much of my life up?
